Category: News

Orlando Gudes says he is all about the people, and all about his community.

He thinks he can help uplift both as a Tampa City Council member.

Gudes told the Neighborhood News that he intends to run for the District 7 Tampa City Council seat that will be soon vacated by Lisa Montelione, who has filed to challenge Shawn Harrison for the Florida House District 63 seat in November. State law requires that Montelione resign and vacate her council seat by June 10 of this year.

Gudes, a retired Tampa police officer and Director of the United Youth Football Conference, joins a field of prospective candidates for the municipal elections next March that already includes Cory Lake Isles Community Development District (CDD) chair Dr. Cyril Spiro, and recent Tampa Palms resident and La Gaceta (Tampa’s largest Spanish language newspaper) assistant to the editor Gene Siudut.

Tampa Palms resident and lawyer Luis Viera also has expressed interest in representing District 7, which runs north from Waters Ave. to County Line Rd., including Forest Hills, Terrace Park, New Tampa and the University of South Florida.

Gudes, who helps run his family’s Gudes Funeral Home on E. Hillsborough Ave., is the first non-New Tampa resident that we know of with intentions to run for Montelione’s seat. Gudes has lived in North Tampa (between Fowler Ave. and Busch Blvd., in the Copeland Park area) for 16 years.

“The heart of North Tampa,’’ he calls it.

He said that as a police officer, youth football coach and organizer, and mentor to countless children and adults, public service is in his blood. He sees a division between North Tampa, New Tampa and other parts of District 7, a gap he would like to bridge.

“It’s a unique district,’’ said the 48-year-old Gudes. “To me, I feel the district has become kind of divided and I don’t think it should be. New Tampa, University area, whatever you want to call it, we’re all in the same district. I don’t believe the area you live in defines you, rich or poor. We’re all people. We should all be helping each other.”

Gudes says there isn’t a door in North Tampa he probably hasn’t knocked on at some time or another, and few residents he hasn’t met.

A Tampa Bay Tech High (on Orient Rd. in Tampa) graduate, Gudes attended Bethune-Cookman College (now University) in Daytona Beach, before transferring back home and receiving his Associate of Arts degree from Saint Leo University near Dade City. He also says he has a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavorial Science and a Master’s degree in human resource administration from National Louis University in Tampa.

Gudes served nine years as a school resource officer in the late-1990s, early-2000s before “returning to the streets” and becoming a master patrol officer.

In 2004, Gudes started the Unity Youth Football Conference (UYFC), to give local children a flag and tackle football league that they could afford and that was in their community.

The UYFC instituted study halls and grade-point-average requirements, and helped keep kids out of trouble. A number of its players went on to become high school and college players, including Matt Jones, currently the starting running back for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

While Gudes says he has some ideas about what he would like to accomplish as a City Council member, he plans on unveiling his platform after taking the pulse of the community. “This isn’t about me, it’s about them,’’ he says.

“The whole philosophy of our campaign, our whole mission is community, compassion and contribution,’’ Gudes says. “That’s my commitment to the people.”

Gudes also says he is planning to hold multiple “Chat and Chew With Gudes” meetings at which the community will be invited to discuss what they think its needs are. He says he wants to hold one in every part of District 7.

“Whether some of the things people want is attainable or not, they need someone to knock on those doors, to get them to open and to get people to listen to us,’’ Gudes says. “I’m not afraid to knock on those doors.”

Long rows of traffic cones and white barricades and a procession of construction trucks and workers have appeared recently north of Pebble Creek Dr. all the way up to County Line Rd. (Segment D) in New Tampa, as the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. widening project begins to enter its final phases.

According to Hillsborough County community relations coordinator Andrea Roshaven, all the construction you are currently seeing north of Cross Creek Blvd. is Verizon doing advance utility locations in preparation for the actual widening of BBD from four lanes to eight.

Once Verizon has completed the work, construction is expected to begin in the fall of this year. “We haven’t awarded the work, but it is funded,’’ Roshaven said.

That will be welcome news to northbound travelers who have to deal with the stacking left lanes between the McDonald’s and Walmart on the west side of BBD. The bottlenecks and congestion in this area has been caused by BBD reducing from four northbound lanes down to two in less than half a mile.

Segment D, which is a little less than a mile-and-a-half stretch, is currently estimated to cost $21.6 million, although that figure could change once a contractor has been procured.

Meanwhile, work on Segment A, by Prince Contracting, also continues in earnest, as workers widen BBD from four to eight lanes from E. Bearss Ave. to Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

Recent work at Amberly Dr, was done to overbuild the existing roadway to match BBD, which was two feet higher after widening. Amberly Dr. was given a gradual grade for a smoother transition onto BBD. Similar elevation work was done at the Tampa Palms Blvd. and Cypress Preserve Dr. intersections with BBD.

More cones and barriers are in place from Tampa Palms Blvd. to Palm Springs Blvd., as the area is being prepped for the widening to complete the Segment A portion, a $55.5-million project which is still not expected to be finished until the summer of 2017.

“People will continue to see intermittent lane closures,’’ Roshaven says.

So what can commuters expect in the coming months? In late March or early April, there will be a lane switch south of the bridge over Cypress Creek (just south of Amberly Dr.) in order to vacate the northbound bridge section for demolition. The lane switch will take place between Cypress Creek and Cypress Preserve Dr., using the crossovers located at Cypress Creek and south of Cypress Preserve Dr.

The two lanes of southbound traffic will shift into the new permanent southbound lanes and the two lanes of northbound traffic will shift into the existing southbound lanes.

The county will be installing message boards in advance to alert drivers to the lane switch before it happens.

Segments B and C are all but completed. While work on the segments couldn’t be finished until the I-75 widening project between Fowler Ave. and S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel was completed last spring, John McShaffery, the Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson, says that other than some final pavement corrections, electrical work, lighting and the installation of traffic counter loops — “pretty much things that aren’t noticed too much.”— the work at I-75 and BBD is finished and will be 100-percent wrapped up by May, or “right on target.”

Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), which is, of course, currently being expanded, continues to be a great community partner, offering many opportunities for local residents to visit and learn more about this spectacular, technologically advanced, $150-million, 200,000-sq.-ft., 83-bed facility, which is adding 111,993 sq. ft. of new construction, as well as 10,834 sq. ft. of renovated space as we speak.

Although February was technically heart month, the hospital extended that month by a couple of weeks when president and CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb cut a ribbon (along with the Greater Wesley Chapel and Central Pasco Chambers of Commerce) on FHWC’s newly expanded cardiac cath lab (on Mar. 13), which has doubled in size.

“We’re so proud of all of our technological innovations here at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel,” Bales-Chubb said during the event, which also featured free food, door prizes and even a walk-through tour of a giant inflatable heart (at the far left in the header at the top of this page), so attendees could actually get a close-up look at how the human heart works.

In late February, FHWC hosted a cupcake-tasting contest, where Bales-Chubb, FHWC Executive Chef Jerry Dzialo, WCCC CEO Hope Allen and yours truly were the “celebrity” judges.

We sampled 20 different types of cupcakes, from my favorite with chocolate and peanut butter to the favorite of all four judges for appearance, the raspberry surprise cupcake shown top right in the header above.

After the judging, all of the more than 350 total cupcakes the hospital created for the event were sold and many of the flavors continue to be sold in the hospital’s café.

For more info about FHWC, including upcoming events like “Fun & Fancy: Ladies Night Out at FHWC” on Wed., Apr. 6, 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m., visit FloridaHospital.com/wesley-chapel or see this issue’s Community Calendar on pg. 20 for pre-registration info.

The New Tampa Noon Rotary may not be the largest Rotary Club in our area, but the spirit of Rotary International’s motto of “Service Above Self” is alive and well among the club’s members, despite the small size (fewer than 20 members) of the noon club, which meets Wednesdays at noon at Café Olé on Cross Creek Blvd.

Current club president and longtime member Valerie Casey says that over the first two years of the Noon Rotary’s “Cycling for our Vets, Military & First Responders,” nearly $15,000 has been raised to support the club’s selected charities and this year, the 4-, 18- or 39-mile ride will be held on Saturday, March 19, 8 a.m., and will again take off from the Chili’s Grill & Bar located at 17643 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just south of the BBD entrance to Flatwoods Park.

The suggested donation to ride is just $30 per rider and the event will be limited to the first 100 riders. The deadline to pre-register is Sunday, March 13. Day-of registration begins at 7 a.m. and the rides will begin at 8 a.m. and will be staggered to allow longer distance riders go first. The event will go on, rain or shine.

This year’s fund-raising ride will benefit the Navy Seal Foundation, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, Support the Troops and the Stay In Step Spinal Cord Injury Recovery Center, which was featured on page 1 of our last issue. For more info about these great organizations, Facebook.com/NewTampaNoonRotary, NavySealFoundation.org, HCFRFoundation.org, OurTroopsOnline.com or StayInStep.org.

This year’s sponsors include Little Greek Restaurant; Firehouse Subs-Wesley Chapel; Gentle Care Dentistry, the office of Dr. Tom Frankfurth; Stifel Financial-Mike Wallace; USAA Insurance; Children’s Dentistry, the office of Dr. Greg Stepanski; State Farm Insurance-Joyce Coleman; Café Olé and this publication.

For more info, visit Active.com (search “cycling for vets”), Facebook.com/Cycling for vets, call Barry Shuman at (516) 523-2678, email Valerie Casey at ValCasey3@aol.com or see pg. 40 in the latest New Tampa issue.